Hi Rob,
Come on, you post your first message at 5:00pm, and then at 10:00 you write "no one there to give answers"...
Our guys may be programmers, but some of them do try to leave the office every once in a while... <lol>
It sounds like your Ati Remote is just simulating a mouse. I've used them before, and that's how they work. That's not a very convenient way to navigate either (too slow).
The way the Orbiter's OSD display works with a regular IR remote is like this: From the main menu, punch the same number combination on the I/R remote to trigger scenarios like you would on the mobile phone. "1" brings up all the lighting scenarios (numbered, like on the phone), "2" activates the second one. "2" brings up the media menu, "2" starts TV. That's the fastest way to do it, since it's just 2 keystrokes, and is faster than most remotes, particularly for common tasks where you remember the keystrokes (ie 22 = tv in every room). The other thing you can do is use the i/r remotes up/down/left/right button to highlight the buttons. It's not a mouse where you're moving a pointer--down moves the highlighter down. This is the same way Myth and nearly all other set top boxes work (like your cable box).
Once you select the media scenario you want, like 'TV', you no longer even have a menu. Just use the remote like normal "play", "rewind", "fast forward", "skip up/down", etc.
All the code in Pluto is in place to do this, and it works and we've tested it. The LIRC configuration is stored in the database "choose advanced, device templates, peripherals, remote controls, LIRC". You'll see all the LIRC remotes, and the device data has the config file. The device driver LIRC_DCE writes out a standard LIRC configuration file and runs lirc like normal. So, to lirc, there should be no difference--we didn't modify it.
For some reason lirc isn't working, and we don't know why. It does work for others, so it's not an inherint bug in lirc. But we've posted messages to the lirc forums and have not gotten any responses. Radu is working on debugging the lirc issue.
As soon as lirc is working, try using pluto with the i/r remote. You could try using Myth front-end. However, it seems like a huge amount of work. The OrbiterGen app would need to be re-written to output whatever Myth needs. And the Myth front-end won't be able to handle DCE messages. So it would need to be rewritten. Plus, a new floorplan module would need to be written for Myth. Myth's internal datagrids are likely different than ours--that would need to be rewritten.
As far as the other Myth plug-ins, give them a try. We don't do anything at all that should break/interfere with Myth. When you hit 'watch tv', all it does is spawn '/usr/bin/mythfrontend' in a window and make that window top-most. We didn't change a thing, so you can do anything with Myth.
BTW, re LIRC support to Xine... We already did that. As soon as we get lirc working, that will work too.